The top finishers were Katie Meyers and Steffen Uhrich and the top finisher in the mascot division was Italian. If you ran today’s race, click here for searchable results, which will be available this afternoon.

The weather was just right for the event and Brewers coaching assistant Joe Crawford served as the Celebrity Starter for this year’s race.

Fundraising efforts for the event raised money for Fisher House Wisconsin, which provides a “home away from home” for military and veterans’ families to be close to a loved one during hospitalization for an illness, disease or injury at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee.

I’ve compiled some of the photos and tweets we’ve received via Twitter and Instagram, but we’d love to see yours, too! It was cool to see people taking photos along the way during the race. Tweet and/or Instagram your comments and photos using the hashtag #Sausage5K.

This event is a perfect precursor to the Brewers Mini-Marathon, which takes place 9 weeks from today, on Saturday, September 20. Registration is still open and you can save by signing up by Thursday, July 31.

Congratulations to everyone who participated and finished the race today and thanks to the many volunteers who helped put on such a great event. There is nothing like that feeling of crossing the finish line and it was great to see the smiles on the faces of everyone as they crossed the line.

Two weeks ago, I told you about my experience of pushing myself too hard early on in training. I warned readers to err on the side of playing it safe. Now, here’s another lesson in that from Trenni, based on her experience at Summerfest’s Rock ‘N Sole this past weekend.

DNF. Did not finish. That was the outcome following the Rock ‘N Sole half marathon for me on Saturday. I have been running distance races for nearly seven years now and no matter how bad I felt or how tough the race, I have never dropped out early. I could have survived and crossed the finish line on Saturday and probably not much slower than my usual time, but I had to stop this time so I won’t have to again.

Starting with the Boston Marathon in 2010 I have been struggling with dehydration issues in all but a few of my events. The races I run start out just fine, but as the miles pile up, my body wears down far too fast when the temperatures are even slightly warm. The symptoms start with me feeling very, very thirsty and a little “off”. Things then progress to where no matter how warm it may be outside, I experience goose bumps on my arms and legs. By the time I get closer to the finish, it is nearly impossible for me to even approach a pace I’m capable of running and the headache and nausea have set in.

I began to experience these symptoms around the 10-mile mark on Saturday. I was running at a pretty decent clip (about a 7:25-7:30 mile), but nothing I couldn’t handle for that distance. Just one week earlier I had run a 10-mile race at a 7:24 pace and felt just fine. (The weather was cooler, less humid and more overcast on the day of the 10 mile race.)

As the route rounded toward Veteran’s Park on the lakefront, I spotted a medical tent at about 11.5 miles. One and a half miles from the finish. Despite how close I was to the end, I stopped. I decided it was better to figure out what the heck is going on with my body than to finish another run knowing I’ll feel crummy again the next time around.

Although I was disappointed I stopped, I finally have some concrete information to work with.

One, my feelings of discomfort are not in my head. (I was partly worried I’m just mentally weak and can’t push through the finish of races.) The medical team had me walk around and drink Gatorade to try and calm some of the symptoms. After nearly ten minutes of no aerobic activity, they checked my heart rate and it was still at 140 beats per minute, which is way too fast after an extended period of time without intense activity-especially for someone at my fitness level. In addition to my heart rate, the medical team in the main tent twice took my blood pressure. Once while lying down and again a few minutes later sitting up. My blood pressure dropped nearly 20 points between the two, which again is not normal. A drop of 20-plus is very alarming, so I didn’t fit into that category, but it was still enough of a red flag for the doctor.

The second revelation, a medication I’m taking may be to blame. Apparently the type of medicine I’ve been taking for the past few years (right around the time I began having issues) can sometimes exacerbate heat exhaustion and dehydration. I may need to switch medications or make the simple change of taking the does at night as opposed to first thing in the morning.

So although things didn’t go remotely the way I wanted them to during my first half marathon of the summer running season, I walked away feeling better about future events. For the first time in more than two years worth of racing, I may finally have a solution to a frustrating problem.

I am going to visit my primary care physician and figure this thing out as I continue to train for the Brewers Mini. Don’t forget to always train safely and really listen to your body.

With just 15 weeks to go until the Brewers Mini Marathon and just 7 until the Brewers Community Foundation’s Famous Racing Sausages 5K Run/Walk, John, Trenni and I are all in training mode.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, even though I’ve participated in running events before, I’m not an everyday runner. So, in preparation for these upcoming events, I’ve been trying to run more regularly and build up my speed/mileage.

For those of you who know me personally, you know that I have a “Type-A” personality. I am ambitious and like to push myself, which can oftentimes be good when it comes to accomplishing goals and getting things done, but can also, at times, be harmful, such as when I push myself too hard.

In the case of my training, thanks to Trenni’s guidance, I was really starting to enjoy my morning runs and had begun running outside almost every morning. After achieving a personal best time for a 2-mile run, the next day I attempted to run a 5K distance just to time myself and establish a benchmark.

I got about halfway through that run and felt something funny in my left knee. I made it home, but I could tell something was wrong. I took a day off and then tested it out again–it still hurt. Two days after that, it still bothered me, but it didn’t hurt when I walked and I wanted to continue training. However, the moment I tried to run on it, it would buckle. Then I went to play golf and while I walked the 18 holes, I noticed my other knee starting to ache, as well as pain in my elbows.

Worried that I had somehow seriously injured myself, I made an appointment with my doctor before doing any other form of exercise. She checked everything out physically with my joints, particularly my left knee, which was the primary source of pain, and even ran some blood tests due to my family medical history.

It turned out that everything checked out just fine–it was just a classic case of overuse. I was trying to do too much too soon and, by not giving that left knee a chance to rest after I first tweaked it, I also put myself at risk for further injury by changing my form to compensate for the pain.

I took a week off of running and adhered to the pain medication schedule prescribed my physician and I’m feeling much better now. I was very lucky I didn’t do any serious damage to my knees and I’m ready to get back out there, but this time, I am going to play it safe and really listen to my body.

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